The Texas district attorney who charged Lizelle Herrera with murder after an alleged “self-induced abortion” has apologized and admitted the 26-year-old should never have been charged. According to a report in The Washington Post, Gocha Ramirez, the new district attorney in Starr County, along the Mexico border, phoned Herrera’s lawyer, Calixtro Villarreal, and said she “should never have been charged.” The DA also texted an acquaintance, saying “I’m so sorry. I assure you I never meant to hurt this young lady.” Herrera’s case stirred national outrage after she was taken into custody Thursday amid concerns her arrest might be a consequence of a new Texas law that bans many abortions. However the Post says it has established the arrest was the result of “a hasty error” by Ramirez, a Democrat, and that there has been no change to a Texas law that explicitly exempts women from homicide charges for ending their own pregnancies.
